


astronomers, thieves, lovers

by singingstorm



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-17
Updated: 2012-05-17
Packaged: 2017-11-05 13:09:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/406728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singingstorm/pseuds/singingstorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection for May 2012's <a href="http://31-days.livejournal.com">31 days</a> themes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. this was once a love poem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-series, Basco.

It's a burned-out husk of a world that they land on next, ashes long since cold and the scent of rot sweet in the air. The complex that Navi directs them to won't be difficult to search, not with most of its walls just so much rubble on the ground, but it's large enough that they decide to split up. 

The whole process is familiar and routine by now. Basco prefers covering ground in ever-widening spirals, relying on his internal compass to keep him on track while he searches for a hint of anything out of place. Marv's approach is decidedly more haphazard but strangely effective, and as for Akared, well, who ever knew about that old geezer. 

Basco carelessly kicks a wooden beam out of his way. It half-crumbles under the impact and shatters at the base of yet another toppled statue. This must have been a place of some importance, Basco thinks disinterestedly, or the people of this planet just had some strange obsessions.

The search is long and luckless, with nothing to show for his trouble except a fine layer of white-grey dust all over his boots and a persistent itch in his nose. He flips over a suspiciously smooth panel of rock, but all it's hiding are a few carved words, harsh and spiky, in no language that he recognises, the uneven strokes telling him that the letters were carved by hand. It's likely enough that the planet's technology hadn't reached any level of sophistication, and more likely still that they'd been judged worthless for it, ignorant of their own sentencing until the Zangyack came around to pass it. 

He can hear Marvelous approaching in the distance, a crunch of boots against bone and gravel, but Marv doesn't offer anything as polite as a greeting, just holds up two ranger keys between his fingers with a smirk. 

"We're done here," Marv tells him, tossing one key at his face. He catches it easily before it can take out an eye, which he's pretty sure Marv was aiming for. "What's that?" 

"Beats me," Basco says cheerfully. "Can you read it?"

Marvelous frowns, because he can barely read galactic common and he knows that Basco knows that. So suspicious, Basco thinks, except when he needs to be. Basco's not taking a dig at him, not really, not right now; Marvelous's breadth of knowledge surpasses Basco's in some ways, even if it never tends to be particularly deep. He'd seen a lot of things in his years of stowing away, and, well, getting around hadn't been the easiest thing for Basco to do before he learned how to put on this other skin.

"No," Marv says, shaking his head. "Is it important?"

Basco casts a long glance over their surroundings.

"I'm going to go with 'not anymore'," he says with a shrug, slinging an arm over Marv's neck and ignoring his immediate squawk of protest. He starts walking back to the ship, Marv stumbling an ungraceful half-step behind; it wouldn't do to make Akared wait, after all.


	2. wringing stars out of zero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-series, Marvelous.

Space is a harsh mistress, harsher still these days, with the Zangyack cracking down on mayhem and theft that they don't themselves initiate, like brats who've never learned to share. Marvelous isn't the sharing type himself, but his tolerance for other people's bullshit stops when personal inconvenience starts.

And inconvenient is the least of the shit he could call the empire, but there's not much audience for such talk, not anymore, not with each passing world increasingly nervous and quiet, everyone holding their breath for the next axe to fall. It's not like he's going out of his way to pick a fight with the Zangyack, Marvelous thinks, kicking the last gormin into a row of crates and eyeing the bodies around him without satisfaction - it's not like he goes out of his way to pick a fight, but it kind of pisses him off sometimes, space bowing to an empire made up of this lot. 

He levers a crate open, sifts carelessly through its contents, and sighs; worthless in a fight, and with crap taste besides. 

It's a slight flash of red that catches some of his attention, the curious human-shaped trinket fitting neatly in his hand, and a bigger flash of red that catches a lot more. The strange man is good with a sword and possibly touched in the head, with the crap he really seems to believe about dreams and treasure. And then - 

He's never really understood the worship with which some spacefarers regard their vessels, just chalks it up to being the harmless kind of nuts. They're a means to an end to him, nothing more than a hunk of metal and a life-support system, but the ship rising up before him is like nothing that he's ever stowed away on before, all sleek lines and curves, and, well.

The greatest treasure in the universe, huh. 

It's a dream, for sure, but even though he knows better, he thinks that maybe he'll try chasing it anyway.


	3. ankles, elbows, eyes, and thighs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-series, Basco/Marvelous

"And this one?"

Basco's breath tickles over the bare skin of his ankle and Marvelous jerks reflexively, but Basco's grip doesn't loosen and he's too pleasantly tired to really struggle. Anyway, Basco's kind of a weird bastard, but it's not like he's going to hurt him, so Marvelous wrinkles his nose and props himself up on one elbow, craning his neck over his shoulder to look at the jagged white scar that Basco's tracing with a finger.

"I fell," he replies shortly, because sometimes it's just easier to go along with whatever the hell is going on through Basco's head. 

"Must have been some fall," Basco says. He runs out of scar tissue but his fingers keep moving, ghosting up Marvelous's skin in a pattern that only he can see.

"Nah," Marvelous replies. "Just some landing."

Basco laughs, pillowing his head on Marvelous's legs so the sound vibrates right through him. 

"You don't have any," Marvelous says abruptly.

"What?" Basco asks, but he's still face-down somewhere at the back of Marvelous' knees, so it comes out more like 'whmph?' until Marvelous rolls over to dislodge him, because the bastard's nose is deceptively pointy. 

"Scars," Marvelous says. It's true - Marvelous isn't self-conscious about his own, barely remembers that they're there most of the time, and considering their line of work, it's Basco's unmarked skin that's the anomaly here. 

Come to think of it, Marvelous isn't even sure if he's ever seen Basco bleed. 

"Ah," Basco says. He's hauled himself back up the length of the bed so that he's staring into Marvelous's eyes. His own are half-lidded, dark and serious, and Marvelous finds his breath catching in his throat. 

"That's because - " he starts, licking his lips. "That's because... I know how to watch where I'm going, Marv."

He's still laughing a moment later when Marvelous tries to strangle him in the sheets.


End file.
